28 September 2009

Heavy Rotation 005: Sade | Lovers Rock.

[Inspired by the fact that a new Sade album is supposed to drop late this year.]

Please dig the Clear Channel wax out of your ears for a few minutes and marinate in this:

Timeless, classy and sexy. Although I knew a couple of people who disliked Lovers Rock (one friend of mine thought that "the snares hit too hard") when it dropped back in 2000, I thought it was a great way for Sade to reintroduce herself since releasing Love Deluxe eight years before. They were probably expecting Love Deluxe 2 or something, and truthfully if she'd come out with another LP with the exact same sound as the one popularized by, say, "Cherish The Day", I probably would've copped it off general principle. Say word.

Lovers Rock is undoubtedly a Sade album though. I have no idea how many initial songs she originally had to whittle down to the final eleven that made the cut, but the joints that did make it are damn near flawless. Influences range from roots reggae, a little rock, folk and even some slight hip-hop nuances -- but the overall mood of the record retains the "quiet storm" feeling familiar to any Sade fan. It possesses an intangibly cool, layered sensibility that modern R&B/soul "divas" would do well to try to emulate.

Actually, they shouldn't. I don't want any Sade Lite clones running around and cluttering up the music scene anymore than it already is. So fire up last.fm or Pandora and spin some Lovers Rock. You need a little Sade in your life.